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Car Bomb Blamed on Iranian Backed Shias June 19, 2008 The US military has accused Iranian-backed Shia groups of setting off a car bomb that killed more than 60 people in a mainly Shia area of Baghdad, hinting at yet another new twist in the complex web of violence gripping the capital. “We believe the attack was not conducted by AQI [Al-Qaeda in Iraq],” said Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a US army spokesman, said. “Though vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices are a trademark of AQI, our intelligence, corroborated through multiple sources, is this atrocity was committed by a Special Groups cell led...

THE US military is drawing up plans for a "surgical strike" against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, Western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the guards special operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shia militias and smuggling weapons into the country. Despite a belligerent stance by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, the administration has put plans for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities on the backburner since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as Defence Secretary in 2006, the sources...

The US military is drawing up plans for a “surgical strike” against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards’ special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi’ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country. Despite a belligerent stance by Vice-President Dick Cheney, the administration has put plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on the back burner since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary in 2006, the sources said....

The Pentagon has ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran, CBS reported Tuesday, as a second US aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf. According to the report, the planning was being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that "what the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq." CBS said that US officials were also concerned by Iranian harassment of US ships in the Persian Gulf as well...

Beirut / Baghdad -- One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat. He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them. Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani (51) ( pictured) commands the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, an elite paramilitary and espionage organization whose mission is to expand Iran's influence in the Middle East . As Tehran's point man on Iraq , he funnels military and financial support to various Iraqi factions, frustrating U.S. attempts to...

One of the most powerful men in Iraq isn't an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat, He's an Iranian general, and at times he's more influential than all of them. Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani commands the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, an elite paramilitary and espionage organization whose mission is to expand Iran's influence in the Middle East. As Tehran's point man on Iraq, he funnels military and financial support to various Iraqi factions, frustrating U.S. attempts to build a pro-Western democracy on the rubble of Saddam...

The government of Iran continues to supply weapons and other support to extremists in Iraq, despite repeated promises to the contrary, and is increasingly complicit in the death of U.S. soldiers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday in a stark new assessment of Iranian influence. The chairman, Admiral Michael Mullen, said he was "extremely concerned" about "the increasingly lethal and malign influence" by the government of Iran and the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a special force that aids and encourages Islamic militants around the world. The Quds Forces in Iran were created during the...

WASHINGTON - Iran is ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq, providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Tehran's elite Republican Guard, U.S. military officials said Friday. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military is preparing to roll out evidence, such as date stamps on newly found weapons caches, that shows that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate. Mullen would not detail the evidence, which is expected to be unveiled by military leaders in Iraq...

Iran making push into Nicaragua Web Posted: 12/18/2007 10:25 PM CST Todd Bensman Express-News MONKEY POINT, Nicaragua — The second military helicopter in as many days hovered over the jungle and then landed to a most unwelcome reception from several dozen angry Rama Indian and Creole villagers. Rupert Allen Clear Duncan, a leader of some 400 Creole who live along the shoreline, confronted the foreigners dressed in suits and military uniforms that day in March and demanded to know the purpose of their aerial trespasses. "This is our land; we have always lived here, and you don't have our permission...

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country's Islamic system, and to provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces. It has since become a major military, political and economic force in Iran, with close ties to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former member.

US kills '25 militants' in Iraq US forces have launched several operations against Shia militants US forces in Iraq have killed 25 suspected insurgents in heavy fighting near Baquba, the US military has said.The military said the target of the operation had been a Shia militia commander linked to the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. An Iraqi police spokesman said several civilians had been killed or wounded in a US raid carried out in the same area. The US has accused the Quds Force of helping arm Shia militant groups in Iraq. Iran denies any involvement. Tehran...

US General: Arrested Iranian an Intelligence Agent October 03, 2007 AFP Khaleej Times Online BAGHDAD -- An Iranian arrested by US forces in Iraq’sKurdish region had been involved in Teheran’s intelligence operations in Iraq for more than a decade, an American general said on Wednesday. ‘Multiple sources’ had also implicated him in providing weapons to ‘Iraqi criminal elements in the service of Iran,’ US military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner told a news conference in Baghdad. On September 20, US troops raided a hotel in Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous northern autonomous region and seized Mahmudi Farhadi, claiming he was a...

U.S. Military Goes After Iran-Backed Militants BAGHDAD — U.S. troops killed one suspected militant and detained four others said to be involved in kidnapping operations run by Iranian-backed Shiite militias during a raid Monday in eastern Baghdad, the military said. The operation in the Iraqi capital's Shiite slum of Sadr City came on the heels of accusations that Iran is smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops and increasing protests by Iraqi officials over the latest U.S. detention of an Iranian in northern Iraq. That detention has taxed relations between Iraq and the...

U.S. Looks to Sanctions on Iran's Quds Force September 12, 2007 Reuters Sue Pleming WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is looking at slapping sanctions on a unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps but has decided against naming the entire body a terrorist group, senior U.S. officials said on Wednesday. With some allies' support fading for tougher U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, Washington plans more unilateral measures to pressure Iran, including sanctions on the Guards' Quds force, blamed for stoking violence in Iraq. "The important thing is to send a signal that we are even more impatient and...

US Captures Suspected Iraqi Aide of Iranian Unit September 05, 2007 AFP Yahoo News! BAGHDAD -- US troops in a pre-dawn swoop on Wednesday in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala captured a wanted militant whom the military suspects of being involved in ferrying extremists to Iran for training. The "highly-sought individual is suspected of being an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds (IRGC-QF) affiliate," the military said in a statement without revealing the detainee's identity but adding later that he was an Iraqi. It said the detained man was suspected of coordinating with "high-level IRGC-QF officers for the transportation of multiple...

US forces battle al-Qaeda, Iran revolutionary guard in Baghdad, Mosul Military and Security 9/1/2007 BAGHDAD, Sept 1 (KUNA) -- Coalition forces have conducted two separate raids to capture or kill suspected Special Groups operatives in Baghdad before dawn on Saturday, the Multi-National Force (MNF) said in a statement. The statement said coalition forces detained eight suspected Special Groups terrorists during the raids. Coalition forces conducted two deliberate ground assaults to raid what were believed to be the residences of two high-level Special Groups leaders. The targeted individuals are believed to be leaders of Special Groups responsible for logistical facilitation of...

BAGHDAD -- A top US general Sunday claimed that around 50 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are inside Iraq and training Shiite extremists to launch attacks on US and Iraqi security forces. Major General Rick Lynch, commander of US forces in central Iraq, told reporters that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards unit, the Quds Force, have set up in central provinces such as Babylon, Karbala, and Najaf, as well as southern belts outside Baghdad. "The border [between Iran and Iraq] is porous and they [Quds Force members] come back and forth all the time ... they are physically...

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces battled Iraqi police and gunmen Friday, killing six policemen, after an American raid captured a police lieutenant accused of leading an Iranian-backed militia cell, the military said. Seven gunmen also died in the fight, a rare open street battle between American troops and policemen. Washington has demanded the government purge its police force of militants, and U.S. and Iraqi authorities have arrested officers in the past for militia links. But the Bush administration said in an assessment Thursday that progress on that front was "unsatisfactory." The lieutenant was captured before dawn in eastern Baghdad, but the...

WASHINGTON — President Bush is set to instruct the Treasury Department to block assets associated with Iran's revolutionary guard corps in a new executive order declaring financial war on foreign saboteurs of the Iraqi government. The paperwork to designate Iran's revolutionary guard corps, or IRGC, and Quds Force is now on the president's desk awaiting his signature, according to three administration officials who requested anonymity. The designation of the IRGC and Quds Force would mark the first time the finance related executive order process, reserved usually for foreign terrorist organizations, would be used against a branch of a foreign military.

Bush Set To Label Iranian Military Branch Terrorist BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun July 13, 2007 URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/58430 WASHINGTON — President Bush is set to declare Iran's revolutionary guard corps a foreign terrorist organization, marking the first time a branch of a nation's armed services would be designated on a list of organizations and entities created after September 11, 2001 to block the assets of Al Qaeda. The paperwork that would designate Iran's revolutionary guard corps, or IRGC, and Quds Force is now on the president's desk awaiting his signature, according to three administration officials who...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US troops in Iraq captured an alleged Iranian-backed militant leader on Friday, as a New York Times reporter became the second journalist slain in as many days in the violent Iraqi capital. The US forces killed six Iraqi police and seven militiamen after coming under fire during a raid in central Baghdad to arrest a police lieutenant accused of running a terror cell, the military said. An American unit called in an air strike to protect themselves after coming under "heavy and accurate fire" from an Iraqi police checkpoint during the pre-dawn operation. The strike was sought...

Iran Training Iraqi Insurgent Groups, General Says Quds Force provides training, funds and arms 03 July 2007 Washington -- An elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard with ties to Hezbollah is training, funding and arming insurgents in Iraq to attack coalition and Iraqi forces and conduct other missions, says a senior U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Iraq. The Quds Force, which conducts international operations for the Iranian Guard, "played key roles in the planning and execution of bombings, kidnappings, extortion, sectarian murders, illegal arms trafficking and other attacks against the Iraqi people, the police, the Iraqi army and coalition...

LONDON [MENL] -- Iran has created a women's insurgency force meant to help annex Iraq. Iranian opposition sources said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has established a female unit for operations in Iraq. The sources said IRGC's Quds Force has been training women for the Bader Brigade in Iraq to infiltrate the Baghdad government. Membership in the women's unit has been limited to Shi'ites, who would conduct special operations in Iraq, the sources said. They said IRGC sought to establish Shi'ite women sleeper cells within the Iraqi government and security forces. "The unit would work toward the ultimate goal of...

The London-based Arabic language newspaper A-Sharq al-Awsat reported Wednesday that the Iranian army has lost contact with one of its high-ranking officers based in Iraq. The report states that the officer, Mohammed Muhsayin Shiradi, from a unit in the Jerusalem Brigade, has not been in touch with his commanders for three weeks. A senior source in the Iranian military told the newspaper that it is possible that Shiradi has been arrested by American forces. Iran is already concerned by the disappearance last month of its former deputy defense minister, who vanished in Istabul. Tehran claims that Ali Reza Asghari has...

U.S. Says Quds Force Operations Director Among Detained Iranians January 24, 2007 Associated Press International Herald Tribune BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. ambassador said Wednesday that one of the Iranians detained by U.S. forces in Iraq during two raids over the past month was the director of operations for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds faction, the organization responsible for funding and arming Iraqi militants. Zalmay Khalilzad said the recent raids were part of a "new strategy" to "go after their networks that are active here." The United States is building up its troops in the region, beyond the additional 21,500 on...